Rag Quilt Question

[Mercedes]

Tomorrow I'll be helping my three granddaughters make a rag quilt for a couple at church who is expecting a baby.    

 

The quilt will have six inch blocks set on the diagonal with a solid color diagonal row then a design diagonal row - this will be repeated throughout the quilt.  They'll sew the wrong sides together on the blocks and "clip" the seams on  the front of the blocks to get that rag look.  The border won't have a binding - just a clipped edge.   They're going to make this a little different then most rag quilts by doing the whole top first then adding the batting and backing then quilt it on Millie  using my boards.

 

My question is, should they just quilt overtop of the ragged seams and work the board as if it's a normal quilt or is there a better way of doing this?

 

 It will be their first time using my long arm so I want to make it as simple as possible.  I have the Egyptian Eye, cross hatching, Swirls and Clam shell boards.  Any recommendation on which board might be the best for this type of quilt?

 

I'm so looking forwards to this as all of them love love love to sew and are so excited about doing this.

 

TIA....Mercedes

[dlnewell]

I think what makes the rag quilts cute it that the back and top layer show  in the "ragged" edges.  If you're going to let them quilt it on your longarm, the quilting might show more if the top was pieced with right sides together instead.  Just my two cents worth though.

[ffq-lar]

I agree with Debbie. If the seam allowances are on top when it's quilted, the hopping foot will plow over them, flattening them and causing pleats. If the fun part is the girls using a pattern board, best to start them out with a flat quilt top so they'll be happy with the results.

[Luz2Quilt]

Having made several rag quilts in the past, I agree with Debbie & Linda. Also, unless you have spring action scissors, they may find clipping the seams boring and painful.  The simplest blocks to make for novices are nine patches, then the girls can choose any of the CL boards to quilt.  It might make for a better learning experience. 

[dbams]

I've heard that rag quilts should not be given to babies as threads could come loose and cause problems.  With the clipping, I'm not sure how long the threads could be, but there was concern about long threads coming loose, wrapping around the babies' fingers and cutting off circulation.  I also think the rag effect would be diminished by quilting over it.

[PatSchafer]

I recently did a rag quilt and used my long arm in finishing the quilting. 

I don't think the frayed effect will work if you only have the top to fray, not all of the layers.  It won't be as full.  Yes, you have to clip those long threads after washing. 

After assembling it all, I put it on the long arm, but quilted within each block enough to hold it together.  It worked quite well, but I avoided stomping over the frayed areas.

Pat S

[RitaR]

If doing a shaggy rag quilt, there are a lot of simple designs to be used in the blocks:

hearts, a big X, a simple leaf, a shamrock, funky stars etc that I'd hate to see it all

mushed up by quilting over the shaggy parts.  Also, you can make a 2 way quilt by

placing prints and plain blocks together, (wrong sides), and follow the design you

have on the front and have such a Cute quilt. using diff prints and plains on the

blocks would give you two quilts.  By using diff prints and solids on the back would

give you more colors in the shag, and be prettier in my opinion, maybe pastels on

one side, and bright jewel-tones on the other.  Smooth on one side to

go against baby and shaggy on the outside.

 

Maybe you can think about it all and of course you will make the final

decision.

 

You can test and see what we mean about mushing the shaggy part down,

using 3 or 4 scrap blocks.

 

just enjoy

 

Rita

[Mercedes]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback!  I may have to rethink how we're doing this but now I can weigh the options.

[RitaR]

Great Luck an d have fun!

[quilterbee1]

This is an old post but I wanted to explain my process making rag quilts using my longarm. I quilt the entire yardage just like a quilt. The top, inner flannel and back. Then I cut my pieces that the blocks will be. Then I run them thru my die cutter. So the blocks are already quilted BEFORE I sew my die cut blocks together.